Internal restructuring: Abbott will lay off 700 workers at its Lake County, Ill., facilities. Abbott posted a 38 per cent gain in second-quarter profit, below Wall Street's expectations.: United States of America

Lobbying & corruption

Subsidy

Advertising & marketing

year

financial misdemeanor

sales

income

source

2005

Sued by the State of California for defrauding the state's $34 billion Medi-Cal program by inflating prices. "We're going to drag these drug companies into courts of law because they've been gouging the public," California Attorney General Bill Lockyer said at a news conference. For example, Medi-Cal paid $804.70 US for a bottle of the hypertension drug Atenolol. Providers such as doctors, clinics and pharmacists paid $33.85 US. As a result, providers reimbursed by Medi-Cal for Atenolol pocketed $770.85 US. The windfalls gave doctors, pharmacies and other providers an incentive to prescribe such drugs, which resulted in even more sales by drug makers, Lockyer said.